Letter From Our President

Greetings SCSPLS Members,

I would like to start my term as President by thanking now Past-President Aaron Leach for the leadership and service that he has given to this society over the past year. Aaron has shown that he truly is committed to this organization and to the profession as a whole. Under his leadership, we have improved communication between the Chapters and the State, have completed the NSPS 100% membership initiative and have taken the very difficult step of eliminating a chapter from which there was no state participation. Also under Aaron’s leadership we created the Palmetto Land Surveyor’s Political Action Committee and started our sixtieth anniversary year with a very nice celebration as part of our Education Conference this past February. And to think that seventeen years ago Aaron was on a golf trip in Myrtle Beach and responded to an ad that I had run in the paper for a party chief. Thanks Aaron, you have become a true professional and I am honored to follow you in this position.

We just completed another successful joint convention with SAMSOG in Savannah and we really appreciate their asking us the past two years to join them. The SCSPLS turnout was a small but dedicated group and we appreciate each of you who made the trip. There were some good short seminars on Friday afternoon and we had a really good time at the sporting clays event on Saturday. Unfortunately, the turnout at the past three or four conventions for S.C. surveyors has been too few to warrant the expense and effort to put a convention on. The Board decided at our meeting in Savannah that we would explore ways to combine the activities normally associated with a convention with our very successful and well attended Education Conference. So there will be no “convention” as we know it in 2015 but we are working on expanding the conference which will be held February 25th.

Good news for all of us is that the economy is improving and we all are getting busy. One of my goals for the year is to try to get more attendance and participation at our General Membership meetings. We the Board understand that many of us need to work as much as possible so we have scheduled our Board and General Membership meetings for Saturdays hoping that they won’t cut into your work schedule. We have made the arrangements for a seminar and meeting at the Citadel on December 6th, and for a seminar and meeting at Parris Mountain State Park on April 18th. So please mark your calendars for these dates and attend. You will get the most out of the Society through your participation.

I will end with what is unfortunate news for us but good news for her. After twenty years of herding us like cats, Brenda has decided that it is time to fully retire and enjoy life. She will be leaving us in mid-October. As you know Kim Long also left us for a full time position with the State so we have hired ViLora Mueller to be our new Executive Secretary. If you have the opportunity please stop by the Columbia office and introduce yourself so that she can put a face with a name. There are a lot of moving parts to this organization and she is trying to learn it all in a very short timeframe.

Again, I am honored for this opportunity to serve YOU the members of SCSPLS and our profession. Please call, text, email or drop me a line and let me know what is on your mind. But be careful, I may take that as your volunteering to head something up!

Carolina Benchmark

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It’s Official . . .

The MOU between SCSPLS and NSPS has been fully executed by both parties and can be downloaded by clicking here.